The Savior
by xoxoeosvugirl
Summary: All their lives, Max and Angel never knew any happiness. They grew up, mistreated and lonely, inside the walls of the School, with only each other for support. When they finally escape and fly towards freedom, they inadvertently cross paths with Fang while he is working at his parents' hotel in a New York beach town, leading them on an unforgettable journey. AU/Fax
1. Prologue

**A/N: Howdy! I'm back with a new story (: I most likely won't update this as quickly as my other stories, just because I have a lot going on-I'm going to NYC in a few days, and I'm just pretty busy with almost-senior-year stuff. But I will try to update when I can!**

**Plot: **Max and Angel, ages fifteen and six, spent their whole lives growing up in a horrible place called the School. Abused and tested on, they struggle to maintain hope until they manage to escape and fly away in the dead of night. Meanwhile, fifteen year old Fang, of New York City, is disillusioned after learning that instead of spending the summer hanging out with his friends, his parents are making him work at the family hotel in Long Beach, New York. But when Max and Angel end up in Long Beach, two vastly different paths intertwine. Can love blossom under extraordinary circumstances?

**Genre: **Drama/Friendship; some aspects of a crime drama much later!

**Rating: **T

Max and Angel have wings; Fang is all human.

* * *

**Prologue**

The sound of a slamming door shook the girl out of her sleep.

The girl stirred, turning over in her sorry excuse for a bed. She swiped a strand of her dirty blonde hair out of her eyes, opening them slowly to the blinding light that now filled the small room.

"That'll teach you to act like that," she heard someone mutter. The person was a scientist, a young woman wearing a white lab coat. The girl referred to her and people like her as "Whitecoats."

The Whitecoat shoved another girl into the room, who was whimpering and cradling her hand. She then stormed away, slamming the door shut once again.

"Angel," the first girl whispered. She knelt down to look at the younger girl. "Are you okay?"

Angel shook her head, a single tear falling from her eye. "I'm scared, Max," she whispered.

Max hugged the young girl gently, fighting back the urge to cry with her.

The two of them had grown up together, in a lab out in the middle of nowhere. Both of them had wings; Max, speckled ones, and Angel, white, fluffy ones. They had been born and raised as scientific experiments.

Max, who was fifteen, had been there longer than six-year-old Angel. Max had spent much of her time growing up in a dog crate, and only recently had been moved to a cell-like room with Angel.

The lab was like a prison. They were let out only for meals and testing, and locked up for the rest of the time. They were treated like objects; like they deserved to be hidden away and forgotten about. And it was all they had ever known. Max knew about the concept of parenthood from hearing the Whitecoats talk, but didn't know who her parents were, if she had any. They weren't given any information, ever, and Angel knew even less than Max.

Max knelt down on the floor, her eyes meeting Angel's. "What happened, sweetie? What did they do?"

Angel sniffled and pulled up the sleeve of her too-large hospital gown, revealing her elbow, which was bruised and bloody.

Max had to stop herself from gasping. She _knew _what it was like getting tested on-most of the time they were given horrible injections. The staff there had a blatant disregard for their safety and often gave the injections incorrectly or in a rush.

To make matters worse, Angel was known to fight back, making everything they did hurt even more. Max had learned a long time ago that she was powerless compared to them. It was better for her just to cooperate and hope for the best.

"Come here. It'll be okay."

Max pushed open a door, leading to a small bathroom, their only privilege there. She grabbed a piece of paper towel and turned on the rusty faucet, dabbing Angel's elbow with the cold water.

"Ow!" Angel said, jerking back.

"I'm trying to make it better, Angel," Max insisted. Angel relaxed, letting Max wipe the blood away. "See? All better." She forced a smile.

"Thanks," Angel said. They walked back into the main part of the room, where Max sat back down on her lumpy bed. She stretched, her wings unfolding through the slits in her gown.

"I want to fly," Angel said, looking at Max's wings.

"Me too, Angel." They had only gotten to fly several times before, during what the Whitecoats called "training." But they had never gotten to fly outside, in the fresh air, among the birds.

"When are we gonna get out of here?" she asked desperately.

Max gulped, unsure of how to answer her. Those questions were the hardest to answer-_why are they doing this? _and _when are we gonna get out of here? _Max wished she had the answers. She wished she could protect Angel from the Whitecoats, keep her safe and happy.

_She deserves so much better, _Max thought forlornly, looking at the small, sad girl. She wanted Angel to run around free, play and even fly. But above all, Max wanted her to smile. Max could count on one hand the number of times she had seen Angel smile.

"Soon," Max said, knowing it most likely wasn't true. Even if they did leave-where would they go? They had never been outside of the facility before. How would they survive? And most importantly, how could they ensure they wouldn't be found?

"I hope so," Angel said. She rubbed her elbow. "He hit me again."

"Who hit you?" Max asked.

"I don't know his name. He has brown hair," Angel said vaguely. "Why does he keep hitting me, Max?"

"Because...because...he's a mean guy," Max told Angel. Again, that was another question Max didn't have the answer to. Max had no idea what could bring a person to not only experiment on, but hit and verbally abuse a young girl. She wasn't even ten yet.

Max wondered if Angel would even make it to her tenth birthday. When she lived in a cage, Max had seen other "experiments" get killed for misbehaving in some way, or just die from all the terrible testing. All she could hope for was that Angel would survive.

Angel yawned, and Max stood up, grabbing her flimsy pillow, which was little more than a piece of cloth. "Here you go, Angel. You can have my pillow too." She placed it on Angel's mattress, helping her lie down.

"What will you sleep on?" Angel wondered.

"Don't you worry about me. I'll be fine," Max insisted. She wanted to give Angel her blanket too, but the selfish part of her brain told it to keep it for herself. She would need all the rest she could get in order to survive the tests.

"Okay. Thanks." Angel yawned again, her eyes closing. Max was grateful she was able to fall asleep; she'd be able to get some peace at least for the time being.

Max stood there above Angel for a few moments, watching her doze off. Just as she turned around to go back to sleep herself, Angel's high-pitched voice startled her.

"Hey...Max?" she asked.

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Can you tell me a story? A happy one?"

Max was tired herself. She wanted to curl back up and go to sleep. But she forced herself to stay awake, for the sake of this young girl that depended on her so much. Angel needed Max, for her support and protection.

"Okay. One day, there was a girl just like you," Max began. "She lived with mean people who did bad things to her."

"You said this was a happy story," Angel protested.

"It is. Hold on," Max told her. "But one day, she saw a star in the sky. _I wish I could fly away and be happy forever, _the girl wished. And the next day, she woke up to find all the mean people were gone! So she leaped up and flew into the sky. She flew for miles and miles, until finally..." Max's voice trailed off. She didn't have any clue as to how to end the story.

"She met a nice prince on a horse," Angel added. "And he had wings, too! And the prince asked the girl to marry her and she became a princess and lived happily ever after!"

"Of course, how could I forget?" Max said. "She did become a princess. And nobody ever hurt her again."

"Never ever?" Angel asked.

"Never ever," Max repeated.

Angel smiled, closing her eyes again. "Thanks, Max."

"You're welcome."

After making sure the younger girl was asleep, Max went back to her bed, lying down on the hard mattress.

"Don't worry, Angel," she whispered as she drifted off to sleep, "we're gonna be okay. I'll make sure of it."


	2. The Break Up

**A/N: Don't hate me *cowers in corner* Please, don't! I've been SO busy and have fallen waaaaayyyyy behind on updating. Like, really. I've been traveling a lot and school starts in 2 days so...Idontknow. Meh. I will try to update more often! I really will! I haven't forgotten about you guys at all (**

**Here's chapter dos...**

* * *

"I'm telling you, man. She's a slut and a tease. You don't need her," Sam Rogers said to his friend, Nicholas "Fang" Larson. The two of them were sitting on a boulder in Central Park.

Fang shook his head. "Don't talk about Lissa like that, Sam. She was...she was great." Fang gazed off into the distance, looking out at the tall buildings of his hometown, New York City.

"Yeah? So great she was fucking Dylan Gunther-Hagen in the theater dressing room," Sam said with a snort. "Come on, Fang. You _saw _them. What kind of girl does that?"

"I just don't know what to think," Fang said.

"You don't think. You already cut her loose. It's summer; you don't want to be tied down. We're all headed to the beach in a few days anyway. I'm sure you'll be able to pick up some girl out there."

"Whatever."

Fang felt his phone buzz. It was his mother, telling him to head home.

"Hey, Sam, I gotta go, but I'll text you once I'm out at Long Beach, okay?"

"Sure thing, bro," Sam said, patting Fang on the back. "Don't go getting all depressed over her!"

Fang chuckled, walking away towards the subway station. He was fifteen, and had just completed his freshman year at New York City's Stuyvesant High School. Though, like most teenagers, he enjoyed going out to see a movie from time to time, he was kind of a quiet guy. His friends called him a "wallower," and that was what he had been acting like for the past few days. Rather than going out with his friends, most of his post-Lissa time had been spent sitting in his room, watching bad reality TV on Hulu.

For the longest time, Fang had been dating Lissa Andrews, or, as Sam sarcastically referred to her, the "red-haired wonder." He loved her, or so he thought. Loved everything about her, from the way her auburn hair fell down her back to how her eyes sparkled in the sunshine. Unfortunately, he had caught her and Dylan, the school jock, in a rather compromising position.

To be specific, Lissa was sprawled across the theater dressing room couch, her dress pulled up, with Dylan on top of her...well, Fang preferred not to think about the technical details. The view he got of Dylan's bare ass was traumatizing enough, not to mention the fact that he had caught his girlfriend cheating on him with a total asshole.

_What does _he _have that I don't? _Fang thought, his mind returning to the event as he walked towards the subway station. _Definitely not brains or personality. I guess he's good-looking, but in a douchey, One Direction sort of way. _

Sighing, he walked down the stairs into the subway station on 5th Avenue and 59th Street. The Q line would take him to the Times Square station, where he'd transfer to the 2 or 3 train to his home on the Upper West Side.

Normally, he liked riding the subway. Not only were there always interesting people riding the train, it was easy to tune out the world and forget everything. Nobody asked questions, nobody bothered him. Everyone was just there trying to get from Point A to Point B.

He rode the subway all the way to the West 79th Street station, where he got out and walked back onto the street. The sky had begun to get cloudy; it was even slightly rainy. Not enough to make the walk home unbearable, just enough to cool the city down a bit. Fang personally liked the way the raindrops felt in his dark hair.

Fang was just grateful that school was over. He had only discovered Lissa's tryst with Dylan on the last day of school, so the gossip hadn't spread yet. And Fang was getting out of town. His family owned a hotel in Long Beach, a small vacation spot on Long Island, and this year, the annual trip would be a welcome distraction. Many of his friends had summer houses there themselves. Fang was looking forward to a summer of bonfires, swimming, and hopefully not wallowing over Lissa too much. Maybe Sam was right. Maybe he would pick up some girl-someone even more attractive than Lissa! An older girl, in college, maybe! Wouldn't she just _love _that!

But still-he found his thoughts drifting back to her long, silky hair, her eyes...

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Fang called out as the door to his apartment closed behind him.

"Oh, good," Fang's mother, Christina Larson, said, pulling her hair into a tight ponytail.

"Where's Dad?" Fang asked, looking around the apartment.

"He's still at work." Fang's parents were both high school teachers, a job which enabled them to spend their summers at the beach.

"Oh." Fang sat down on the couch next to his mother.

"I have something I wanted to discuss with you," she said seriously. Fang immediately became nervous. He searched his mind for all the potentially bad thing he had done-he didn't drink, didn't do drugs, didn't steal, he _had _failed a history test earlier this year, but that wasn't anything too bad...

"Am I in trouble?" he asked nervously.

"No, no," Fang's mother assured him. "It's just, well, you know how things are with the economy these days. Money's tight, and you're getting older, so your father and I agreed that we think it would be good if you worked at the hotel for the summer."

"What?" Fang asked. As much as he loved his parents, the idea of sitting behind a desk all summer didn't thrill him one bit. "Are you serious?"

"Calm down, Nicholas," Christina told him. "It's not _all _the time. You'll have weekends off, and you'll only have to work the night shift twice a week. It's not that bad...you'll learn some responsibility...earn some spending money..."

"You couldn't hire anyone else?"

"Honey, it's just too much money," Christina sighed. "You've never had a job before. When I was growing up, I started babysitting at eleven and got my first job in a restaurant at fourteen. You're almost sixteen now. You can do this."

The visions Fang had of hanging out at the beach with bikini-clad college girls faded away, replaced by images of him sitting around answering phones in a dorky-looking uniform. _Great. Just great._

"But Mom-" he found himself saying, like he was a child.

"You'll thank me for this later," Christina insisted. "Trust me, it's not as bad as it sounds. Working's a good thing."

"Alright," Fang grumbled, standing up. "May I be excused? I have to pack."

Christina nodded. "Yes. And thanks for being cooperative."

Fang went into his room and shut the door. Pulling out his phone, he saw he had three new text messages-all regarding the Dylan/Lissa situation. Great. He sighed once more and put the phone back into his pocket, flopping down on the bed.

_It could be worse, _he told himself, staring at the ceiling. _I could be in jail. Or in school. Or have to see Lissa every day. Even worse, Lissa and Dylan, together. __It could be worse. _

He repeated those words to himself, hoping that his bleak summer would seem a little bit better the next day.


	3. Nowhere to Turn

**A/N: ...I know, I know. I've royally sucked at updating frequently. I'm sorry /: **

**Well...I'm a senior now! Yay! So I have a good reason for my absence (; **

**Read on!**

* * *

For Max and Angel, it was hard to keep track of the passage of time. They had never known anything other than life at the lab, and the only reminders that time went on was the familiar pattern of events that occurred there.

There was the morning wake-up call, where a Whitecoat would bring the two of them some food, if you could call it that. Usually they were only given some watery oatmeal and some sort of nutritional paste. Even though they had never eaten anything else, they knew that what they were fed was hardly sufficient. Once in a while, Max or Angel would see a Whitecoat in the hallway carrying some of their own food: delicious food, like pizza, sushi, or soup. They wanted a taste-just a taste-of any of those delicacies. Their genetic mutations made them have an extremely high metabolism, and so they required many more calories than they were given.

Then, one or both of them was taken for testing. That was the worst part of their day, though they didn't know anything different. They were forced to endure horrible surgeries, injections, and other experiments that, frankly, made Max and Angel wish they were dead.

But that day, Max was woken up by Angel's desperate screams.

"Max! _Max!_" she shouted. Max immediately pushed herself out of bed, running over to Angel's side of the room.

She was huddled in a corner of the bed, clutching her thin blanket tightly. She was pale and shaking, her eyes widened in fear, pain or a combination of the two.

"Angel!" Max said, reaching to hug the girl. "What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"

Angel nodded, looking around the room. "I don't feel very well."

Max almost asked her "Why not?" but knew she didn't have to. It was obviously whatever drug they had tested on her the previous day. There was no telling what the side effects could be. They sometimes lasted for days, the days blurring together in a sedated fog.

"I know. I'm sorry," Max told her, patting her blonde hair reassuringly.

"I have a headache," Angel moaned. "A really bad one."

"I'm sorry," Max repeated, not knowing what else to say.

"Just make it _stop _already," the little girl said, burying her face in Max's chest, like Max was her mother. "Help me."

"I wish I could," Max whispered. "It'll all be okay soon."

Their door opened suddenly, and entered Dr. Jeb Batchelder, a Whitecoat. Even though he still experimented on them, he was one of the nicer scientists that worked there. He tried, as much as he could, given his job, to make the two of them comfortable.

"Hey, kiddo," Jeb said softly, walking over and kneeling beside Angel. "How're you holding up?" He looked from Angel to Max, as if expecting Max to speak for the younger girl.

Angel just shook her head as Max patted her back.

"Not having the best day?" he asked.

Max glared accusingly at him. Even though he tried to be understanding, he was still responsible for much of what happened to them. "She's really sick."

Jeb tilted his head at Angel. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"My head hurts a lot," Angel whimpered.

He frowned, flipping through some notes on his clipboard. "Are you kidding?" he muttered under his breath. "I told them that was too much of a dose for her...I told them...have to file a complaint..."

Jeb turned his attention back to Angel. "Anything else the matter?"

"I feel really dizzy," Angel continued.

Jeb smiled, almost with pity. "It's okay, honey. We're gonna fix you up. Right after we do some tests-"

"No!" Angel exclaimed, backing away from him and grabbing onto Max's arm. "Please, don't!"

"It's okay," Jeb said again, reaching towards her. "We won't hurt you, I promise."

"Don't, don't, don't," Angel repeated, shaking her head.

Max was overcome by the sudden urge to protect Angel. "Jeb, please don't take her today," Max begged. "Can't you see? She's really not doing well. Leave her alone."

"Maximum-"

"I'll go instead," Max volunteered. "You can do whatever you want to me. Just let Angel be. Just for today. _Please_."

"You don't understand," Jeb sighed. "It's not my decision to make. And it doesn't matter. We tested her yesterday. Now we need to do the follow-up procedure."

"But look at her, Jeb!" Max insisted, raising her voice in frustration. She sat Angel up, so that Jeb could see how pale she was, how glassy her eyes had become. But even though he was staring straight at her, Max knew he could never know how bad she really felt.

"I'm sorry, Max," Jeb said. "Believe me, it's not my choice either." He reached for Angel's arm, tugging her away from Max. She wouldn't budge.

"Angel, don't be difficult," he told her. "You know that'll just make it harder for yourself."

Max knew he was right. There wasn't anything either of them could do to stop the inevitable. All Max could do was hope for the best.

Jeb looked at Max desperately, wanting her to help him out. "Right, Max? I'm not going to hurt Angel."

Max couldn't open her mouth. She couldn't bring herself to lie to the girl she had grown up with.

"Right, Max?" Jeb asked again, his voice wavering slightly.

"I don't know," Max finally said.

Jeb was silent. "Well, either way you have to come with me. It won't take long," he assured Angel. "Please, Angel? For me?"

"Fine," Angel said, almost in defeat. She reluctantly let Jeb unwrap her arms from Max and pull her up from the bed. Her legs wobbled slightly as she tried to stand next to the white-coated man.

"There we go. That wasn't so bad," Jeb told her gently, holding onto the girl to prevent her from falling. "Don't worry, you'll be back with Max very soon. This won't take long at all...I promise..."

Jeb's voice faded away as he shut the door behind him. Max heard a familiar "click:" she was locked in as usual.

Max closed her eyes, trying to drown out the glare of the fluorescent lights and the thoughts of what was possibly happening to Angel. Angel trusted Jeb somewhat, at least as much as she could. But other than that, they didn't have a single person to turn to. No family. No friends. Nobody but each other.

Whether it was an hour that passed or ten minutes, Max couldn't tell. But some time later, two Whitecoats came in. This time, looking for Max.

The first one was female. She looked young, barely out of college, most likely. She looked around the room, seeming slightly anxious.

"Is this Subject 10?" she asked the other Whitecoat in a low whisper. She stared straight at Max, as if expecting her to do something.

The male Whitecoat next to her nodded. "Dr. Batchelder said she goes by Max, though." He chuckled, as if the idea of a test subject having a name was just _so _absurd.

The first one glanced down at the clipboard she was holding, then back at Max. "Max. Okay," she said, her voice trembling. She slowly approached Max, who looked at her with suspicion. Neither of them trusted the other.

"Hi there, Max," she said, speaking slowly, almost like Max was a stray dog on the side of the road.

Max was silent for a few moments, but finally nodded in acknowledgment. "Hi," she said back. She gave a small wave.

The Whitecoat was surprised that she had such...well-developed social skills for a girl raised in a lab. It caught her off guard.

"Uh, I'm, uh, you can call me, um, Dr. Richardson," she said, brushing a strand of hair off her face.

"Alright," Max said. She looked down, fiddling with the hem of her hospital gown.

"So," Dr. Richardson began, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, "what's Max short for? Maxine?"

Max shook her head. "No. Maximum. Maximum Ride," she said. "Like Sally Ride, the astronaut."

Dr. Richardson nodded, forcing herself to smile. "That's a..._nice_ name." She turned to the male Whitecoat. "So...well..."

He flipped through several sheets of paper on his own clipboard. "She's an avian-human hybrid," he told Dr. Richardson.

She nodded. "Oh."

"Ninety-eight percent human, two percent hawk," he continued.

Max was suddenly aware of the folded wings on her back. They had been there her whole life; it wasn't like having wings was anything new. But still, it reminded her she was _different. _Different than Jeb and the others, different from regular humans.

"Interesting," Dr. Richardson said with a nod. "What are we going to be doing today?"

"Just some...routine...injections," the other Whitecoat said matter-of-factly. Despite all attempts to stay calm, this angered Max. There was nothing _routine _about possibly dying from whatever it was they would give her.

"Like you did to Angel yesterday?" Max suddenly snapped, glaring at the male Whitecoat disdainfully. He flipped through some more papers.

"I don't have Subject 11's file on me at the moment. You'll have to check with Dr. Batchelder." He turned back to Dr. Richardson. "I have to go check on something. Take her to room 114. Be careful, though. Some subjects can get...uncooperative."

That nervous look reappeared in Dr. Richardson's eyes.

"Okay, Max," she said. "Come with me."

Max looked at her for a second before pushing herself up. Dr. Richardson noticed the slits in the back of her gown, through which she could see feathers poking through.

"Did you always have..."

"Yeah," Max told her, not looking at her as she was led out the door.

"And can you..."

"Yeah, I can fly," Max said sharply. "And you don't need to talk to me like I'm two, either. Believe it or not, I speak English perfectly well."

Dr. Richardson flinched at the girl's harsh comment. All of the other test subjects she had worked with during the two short weeks she had been working there were almost completely non-communicative. They either didn't know how to speak, or were in too much pain to even try.

"I didn't know," she said. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have the right to say you're sorry," Max said simply. "Not after taking Angel this morning."

"Who's Angel?" Dr. Richardson asked.

"You know," Max snapped. "Subject 11? You people tested on her, she got really sick, and they're taking her for more tests."

"I didn't know about that either," Dr. Richardson said. She found herself wondering if she had made a mistake working here. She wanted more than anything to work in the field of human genetics. But what, exactly, took place there?

"Whatever," Max spat.

They walked down a long hallway, past different doors. Through the window on one of the doors, Max could see rows of cages. She shuddered at the memories of her childhood. Finally, the Whitecoat opened a door leading to a typical testing room. It was cold. White. Terrifying.

"Well, okay, Max," Dr. Richardson said. "We're going to do a few tests here."

She nodded, looking at the other Whitecoats in the room. They all stood there, watching her impatiently.

"Make sure you take her heart rate _before,_" one of them told another. "Last time, you forgot, remember, and the entire chart was off."

The person being spoken to nodded. "Sure thing, Bill."

After taking Max's heart rate and blood pressure, Dr. Richardson injected Max with a cool, clear liquid.

She felt her eyesight blur, the room start spinning, and her head start pounding, a typical reaction to many of their tests. And almost immediately afterwards, she felt Dr. Richardson grab her arm.

"Is she okay?" she asked. "Max? Can you hear me?"

"She's fine," another scientist said dismissively. "I need to get her heart rate again..."

Max knew who he was: Dr. Langley. He wasn't one of the most abusive Whitecoats there, but he definitely wasn't nice. A few times, he had even tried to touch her in a way that older men shouldn't touch teenage girls-even ones with avian DNA. Of course, she had kicked his ass, but not without getting in trouble with the other Whitecoats there. They weren't even technically human. Why bother looking out for them.

She wanted to shove him away, tell him to eat shit. But she couldn't in her current state.

Max began to feel her eyes drift closed. She thought about poor Angel once again, how helpless she had looked.

_I have to get us out of here, _Max thought, before she lost consciousness completely. _I don't care how. We have to find a way out._


	4. Escape

"See, dude? I told you being single wasn't so bad," Sam said to Fang, nudging him in the side.

Fang shrugged. "Yeah. It's not too terrible."

Actually, the more time he spent away from Lissa, the more time he believed that statement to be true. She _had _been kind of nagging and controlling. Whenever Fang just wanted to have some time to himself, she would bother him constantly until he either gave in and hung out with her anyway, or just gave up and ignored her. Now, well, it was kind of odd to have so much free time, but he had to admit, it felt pretty damn good.

"So how was work?" Sam asked.

"Decent. Not as bad as I thought." Fang had spent nearly the whole day working at the hotel, the Oceanside Inn. While it obviously wasn't as fun as spending the day at the beach or pool, it was...tolerable. And having some extra cash wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Now, the work day was over, and they were going for a walk around Long Beach. The area the Oceanside Inn was located in was relatively upscale, though the city of Long Beach itself had a reputation for being kind of sketchy in some sections. Still, Fang, Sam, and their friend James "Iggy" Griffith had been vacationing there for so long, their parents trusted them not to go in the wrong neighborhoods.

Lido Boulevard was the longest thoroughfare in Long Beach: it extended out of Long Beach's Park Avenue from the west side of the island all the way to the lookout on the east side. The three boys had already walked at least a mile.

Sam looked around. The mainly residential area of the island had morphed into more commercial buildings and parks. And because it was getting late, there were fewer people around.

"You wanna turn back now?" he suggested, trying to hide the fact that he was getting a little nervous being in an unfamiliar area so late.

"Nah," Fang said, shrugging. "Let's keep going. Iggy, you don't mind, right?"

Iggy shook his head. "Nope. Hey, I've never met any chicks from this part of the island. We could get lucky." He winked.

"You're a perv," Fang said, nudging him. "I don't think you could go for ten minutes without thinking about getting laid."

Iggy winked. "Can't say I'd disagree."

Iggy was a true "man's man." His favorite things to talk about were bombs and other exploding things, and hot girls. Preferably hot girls in bikinis. Still, he really was a caring guy who was fun to hang out with.

"I just like this time of night. Plus I've been inside all day, remember?" Fang said. He wasn't sure why he wanted to stay out, but what else would he do? Probably sit with his friends at one of their houses and watch some dumb movie. Or flip through old issues ofthe _Sports Illustrated _swimsuit edition and rate the girls on a scale of one to ten. Stupid, mundane, guy stuff. He'd much rather walk around outside and clear his head.

"True, bro," Sam said, patting him on the back. "Poor Fang, has to work all summer. Bummer. We gotta throw you a party when you're off this weekend."

"If you want. I don't care."

"We're so gonna make it happen. My parents are gonna go back to the city for the weekend, and my brother Eric can score us some kegs."

Fang tried to avoid making a face. Wouldn't getting arrested for underage drinking make his parents _so _proud?

"I guess," he said.

"All _right! _That's what I'm talking about," Iggy said, laughing. "We'll invite some of the girls. Brigid, Ella, Nudge, Kate, Star, that whole crowd. You need to meet some _real _babes."

"Who says 'babes' anymore?" Fang asked.

"Iggy Griffith," Sam answered. The three of them chuckled.

"But you get what I mean, right? There's plenty of 'em out there. Just waiting to go out with you," Iggy insisted. "Keep your head up, man. Someone'll come around. I've got a good feeling about it."

"Yeah." Fang sighed, looking up at the sky. He wondered just when this mystery girl would come around...and just who she would be.

* * *

Pain. That was all Max felt. Pain, a sharp pressure in her throat, and, of course, her pounding head. She wanted to move, but she figured she was so dizzy that doing so would end up with bad consequences. Plus, there was something keeping her tied down to the bed she was in.

Besides that, she could hear the loud beeping of a heart monitor, and the chattering of the Whitecoats surrounding her.

_"She's waking up. Take the breathing tube out." _

_"But what if-"_

_"We can't leave it in when she's awake, for God's sake! Dammit, didn't you learn anything in medical school? Take it out."_

She felt something else, and the pressure in her throat went away. Max found herself almost gasping for breath, glad to have the tube out, but not used to breathing on her own once again.

_"Subject 10? Can you hear me? Subject 10-" _

_"Call her Max. Dr. Batchelder said she'll respond better if you call her Max." _

_"Okay. Max? Are you awake?" _

It was the young woman before-what was her name? Dr. Richardson? Yeah. Definitely Dr. Richardson.

_"Her brain waves are showing she's awake." _

_"Give her a few minutes. She didn't react well to that test. It'll take her a bit to come back." _

Max forced her eyes open for a split second, immediately wishing she hadn't. The fluorescent operating-room lights stabbed at her eyes like knives, and she shut them once again.

_"Max?" _Dr. Richardson spoke once again.

For some reason, Max found the doctor's voice slightly comforting. She didn't sound as harsh or cold as the other scientists. In fact, it was almost like...almost like she actually cared.

Max opened her eyes, more slowly this time, to allow herself to get used to the bright lights. Once she opened them fully, she scanned the room. The Whitecoats were all standing around her, examining her.

Then, she had a moment of panic. How long had she been unconscious for? Hours? _Days? _What about Angel? Where _was _she?

Max tried again to sit up. She had to get back to her. Had to see her baby girl. But she couldn't. She was strapped down.

"Let me-let me go!" she gasped, trying to wriggle away.

"Easy there," Dr. Richardson said. Another Whitecoat held her down.

"Can we untie her?" Dr. Richardson asked.

The Whitecoat holding her looked at another one. The two of them shrugged.

"I don't see why not, at this point." They removed the restraints, allowing her to sit up at last.

Dr. Richardson placed a hand on Max's shoulder. "Take it easy," she warned her.

"What happened?" Max demanded.

"We think it was an allergic reaction to one of the injections," the Whitecoat standing next to Dr. Richardson explained.

"Should we keep her here for observation or bring her back to her room?" Dr. Richardson asked.

He looked at Dr. Richardson. Then at Max.

"Bring her back for now. But we might need to monitor her a little later. I'll let you know."

She nodded.

"Max? Can you stand up?" Dr. Richardson asked Max.

"Yeah," Max said. She pushed herself off of the hospital bed, luckily landing on her feet. The feeling of the cold tile on her bare feet made her shiver.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

Max nodded, brushing a piece of blonde hair out of her face.

"We're going to head back to your room now, alright?"

"I don't really have a choice." Max shrugged. Dr. Richardson bit her lip, faced with the harsh reality that she really didn't have any choices, living in that place.

She was awfully curious about the girl's history. Based on her records, she had lived in that facility all her life, raised mostly by Dr. Batchelder, who taught her how to speak, read, write, and other practical things. He educated her somewhat, so she could possibly be of some use in the future. But mostly, Max was constantly tested on and observed.

Her wings definitely made her stand out, maybe not to the other test subjects at the facility, but they were definitely a surprise to Dr. Richardson. Prior to working at the facility, which was owned by the medical company Itex, she had never even knew such a thing was possible. But they were definitely real.

She wondered what it was like to live with wings. Of course, growing up with them her whole life, Max hadn't known anything different. Still-they were _wings. _It had to be an interesting, and at the same time, wonderful experience to be airborne.

Dr. Richardson led Max out into the hallway, holding onto her. That was to both make sure she didn't fall, having just woken up, and to make sure she didn't run off. She wasn't sure what she'd do if Max or another test subject tried to escape. Her first instinct as a scientist would be to grab her, but on the other hand, the more time she spent there, the more she was wondering if trying to run away wasn't so crazy after all. It definitely seemed like living in that environment wasn't a very uplifting thing. The lack of food, the borderline abusive tests, the constant objectification-Dr. Richardson just wished there was anything she could do to help them.

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes as they walked down the hallway. The place was quiet, as usual. It was almost like everyone there was constantly on guard, not wanting to say anything for fear that hell would break loose for some reason.

"You can let go now," Max said, pulling her arm away from Dr. Richardson. "I'm not as dizzy anymore."

Dr. Richardson let go in surprise. She was still getting used to Max's attitude. There was just something about her that was so different than the other test subjects there. While the rest of them seemed to have given up, Max still had some...life left in her. She hadn't been completely broken down by all the testing.

"Sure?" she asked.

"I said _I'm fine,_" Max snapped. "What's it to you, anyway? You just do the experiments, get your paycheck and leave."

"I want you to be okay," Dr. Richardson said quietly. "It's not like there are too many girls that can fly."

"Right, right." Max rolled her eyes. "Here we go again. I'm some kind of prized possession around here. A rare jewel. Gotta keep me healthy, or at least alive, so I can participate in all your awesome tests. Oh, boy."

"No, you're a..." Well, she couldn't say _you're a human being. _"You're just...special."

"Thank you so very much," Max said sarcastically. "You people have been telling me that my whole life. If I'm so special, why don't I ever get enough to eat? Why do I get hit or drugged into submission if I don't act perfectly?"

"They _hit _you?" Dr. Richardson asked, shocked.

"Why does nobody tell me what's going on? I don't even know who my parents are," Max continued.

Unsure of what else to do, Dr. Richardson gently put her arm around Max's shoulder, trying to calm her down.

"Don't _touch_ me," Max snapped, shoving her arm away. "I refuse to be another one of you people's playthings."

"Sorry," she quickly said. "I'm sorry."

Max ignored her, and they continued to walk down the hallway.

Finally, Dr. Richardson spoke up again. "Maximum Ride," she said.

"That's my name." Max rolled her eyes.

"If you don't mind me asking...how'd you come up with it?"

Max's face softened for a minute, but then she tensed up again. "I do mind you asking, actually. It's none of your business."

"Okay." Dr. Richardson nodded. "You're right. It's none of my business." She smiled tightly, then unlocked the door to Max's room. "Alright. Here we go."

Max walked into the room.

Dr. Richardson took the opportunity to look around at Max's living area. It was clean enough, but hardly inviting. The white paint was peeling off one of the walls, some of the tiles were cracked, and their beds left a lot to be desired. That, combined with the constant glare of the bright lights, made Dr. Richardson feel almost guilty for living in her comfortable apartment in Brooklyn.

"I guess, um, I'll see you later. Maybe."

Max nodded, looking away. After a few moments of awkward silence, Dr. Richardson shut the door.

Now that she was alone, Max finally allowed herself to show a sign of weakness. She stumbled over to her bed and fell onto it, closing her eyes. She still felt terrible-probably as bad as Angel had felt the previous day.

"Max?" a small voice spoke up. _Speaking of Angel. _"Are you okay?"

Max forced herself to sit up and smile. "I'm fine, sweetie," she assured the younger girl.

"You don't sound fine," Angel said. "Maybe you can ask Jeb to give you some soup. Jeb gave me soup earlier because I was sick. He says that's what most people eat when they're sick."

_Soup. Food. _How long had it been since she ate? Max hadn't had anything to eat that day...and the day before...she vaguely remembered taking a bite of toast before giving the rest to Angel. She was so hungry...and so tired...

"Maybe later," Max whispered hoarsely. "I'm going to sleep now, okay?"

"Okay. Max?" Angel asked.

"Yeah?"

"You'll be okay, right?"

Max felt herself tear up. She didn't like to cry. Didn't like to be weak. But who knew which test could be the last? More than the thought of dying without knowing anything else, she hated the idea of leaving Angel alone.

"I'm gonna be fine. Don't worry about me."

She closed her eyes once again, falling back into a sea of nothingness.

* * *

The sun had just begun to set, and Fang, Sam, and Iggy were walking through a particularly deserted area of Long Beach.

"Let's head back," Iggy said. "I'm getting creeped out."

Fang nodded. "Alright. Yeah. It's pretty late out."

They were right in front of a concrete building surrounded by rows of barbed-wire fencing. Iggy looked up at the place.

"Look at this place," he said. "This is how episodes of _Law and Order _start, man."

"What kind of building is that?" Fang asked. He shivered a little bit, seeing the building. It gave him the creeps for some reason.

"I don't know. But it's fucking weird. It looks like some kind of creepy mafia warehouse."

"Okay, Iggy. It really is time to go home." Fang promptly spun around, with Iggy following behind him. "Sam! Come on!"

"One second!"

Fang turned back around. Sam was fiddling with his lighter, trying to light a cigarette in his mouth. He rolled his eyes.

"Sam, really?" he snapped.

"What?" Sam asked, blowing a puff of smoke into the air.

"Cut it out, dude. That shit's nasty," Fang insisted.

Sam rolled his eyes. "It's my life, Fang. If I wanna suck tar into my lungs, it's my business."

"It's gross," Fang continued.

Iggy nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Sam. No girl's gonna want to kiss you if your mouth smells like an ashtray."

"Fine," Sam sighed. "You guys win." He pulled the cigarette from his mouth and threw it on the ground.

The three boys walked away, back towards their neighborhood, not realizing that the cigarette was still lit. It had landed on the grass between the barbed wire fence and the creepy building, and a flame was starting to build where the cigarette was dropped, the smoke curling into the night sky.

* * *

Asleep, Max was faintly aware of things going on around her. She could hear an alarm off in the distance, people rushing through the hallways, and could smell smoke. At least she thought that was what it was called.

A pair of small hands shook her awake. "Max? What's going on?" Angel asked nervously.

"Huh-wha?" Max asked, wiping her eyes. She could hear the alarm more clearly now, as well as all of the banging outside of their room.

"What's going on?" Angel asked again.

"I don't know, sweetie."

Max tried to open the door, knowing it was useless. The door was never unlocked. Ever.

Angel's lower lip started quivering. "I have a bad feeling, Max. Something bad's happening," she said.

Max hugged her tightly. "We'll be fine," she told her.

The door burst open suddenly. Dr. Richardson and another Whitecoat, a man Max didn't recognize, ran in.

"What's happening?" Max asked.

"Fire in the East Wing," the man said urgently. He turned to Dr. Richardson. "It's spreading pretty fast. We've got the crew on it. Hopefully we can keep the fire department out of it. That's the last thing we need-the authorities poking around here."

"Fire?" Angel asked. Max was made ever more aware of the acrid smell of smoke.

He ignored Angel, turning to Dr. Richardson. "Take these two over to the West Wing. There's an open room on the third floor. It doesn't matter, just get them out of here." He grabbed the two girls by the arms roughly, handing them over to Dr. Richardson. "Go!"

Dr. Richardson hurried out, holding onto Angel and Max. _West Wing? How do I get there? This place is huge. _

They all ran through the hallways of the lab. But things were different. Whitecoats were running everywhere, dropping papers and trying to get the test subjects to a safe area. It was chaos.

Unlike Max, who didn't want Dr. Richardson to lay a finger on her, Angel clung desperately to the doctor's side, pawing at her white lab coat.

"It's gonna be fine," Dr. Richardson assured her. "Come on. Follow me."

She suddenly got an idea. This was their one chance...or was it too risky?

Rather than following the signs to the West Wing, Dr. Richardson turned a corner and pushed open a door leading to a flight of stairs.

"I thought he said we were going upstairs," Max insisted. "Where are you taking us?"

"Shhh," Dr. Richardson insisted. Nobody had noticed their little detour so far. "You're leaving."

_Leaving? _Max wondered. She didn't want to get her hopes up and be disappointed. But...what did the Whitecoat mean? They had already left the room-were they actually being set free?

They walked down the stairway, finally reaching another door.

EMERGENCY EXIT was written over the door. Max stared at it, reaching tentatively for the handle.

"I could get in a lot of trouble for this," Dr. Richardson muttered. She reached into her lab coat pocket for her wallet and pulled it out. Dr. Richardson counted out three, five, seven, then ten hundred-dollar bills, handing them to Max without a second thought.

"Is that money?" Max asked.

Dr. Richardson nodded. "You know what to do with this?" she asked quickly. "You use it to buy food and clothes and pay for a place to stay."

Max nodded. "I know. I know what money is." She stared at the green pieces of paper.

"Okay," Dr. Richardson said, nodding. "I'm letting you guys go, but only if you promise to do one thing for me."

"What?" Max asked, still in shock that this was even happening.

"Don't _ever _come back here," she ordered Max. "Ever. Don't let them take you or Angel back. You've got a good head start for now. With the fire, it'll be a while before they try to round up everyone. This is your chance. Go. Get out of here. Run, fly, do what you have to do to make sure you get far, far away from here."

Max glanced at the door once again. They were so close. After all these years-so close to freedom. But still-

"Is this a test?" Max demanded.

"Absolutely not," Dr. Richardson insisted. "You deserve better. You've got a whole big world out there for you. _Please. _Leave."

With that, Dr. Richardson pushed the door open. It was a back exit, leading to an abandoned field of some sorts. Beyond that, Max could see the darkening sky, and other buildings in the distance.

She had to fight the urge to gasp in surprise as a breeze blew by, blowing up Max's hair. It was her first time ever being outside.

"Goodbye," Max said, turning to Dr. Richardson. "Thank you."

Angel nodded too. "Thank you," she echoed.

"You're welcome," Dr. Richardson said with a nod. "Good luck."

Max and Angel stepped forward. They heard the door shut behind them, and that was that. Dr. Richardson was gone. They were out of the lab and on their own.

The initial shock of being _outside _wore off a few seconds later, and Max realized that they had to leave. She shoved the money into a pocket in her hospital gown and unfolded her speckled wings dramatically. She loved the way the wind felt in them.

"Come on, Angel. Let's fly."

Angel unfolded her wings as well, shaking out the white feathers. Max leaped up first, flapping her wings in the air. She turned around to see Angel doing the same, a wild grin on her face. She was smiling! Angel was happy at last. Max was so overjoyed, she could've cried.

The two of them took off, the wind blowing past them as they soared higher and higher, leaving everything behind.

"We're free," Max said. There was nobody around except Angel to hear them, so she said it again. "We're free!"

From her position high in the sky, Max could see the rolling waves of the ocean, the twinkling stars, and further beyond that, the bright lights of a city. She didn't know where she was, or what had really happened to lead to this. But she and Angel were finally out of there.

Right then and there, with her wings beating faster than ever and the wind whipping around her, Max vowed never to let anyone hurt either of them again.


	5. Safety

Fang sighed as he clipped his name tag back onto his Oceanside Inn polo shirt. He hadn't been back home from his walk for an hour before his parents told him he would be picking up the night shift at the hotel. He wasn't too happy about it. He had already worked five hours that day, and now he would have to work another three before his workday was over, thanks to their night receptionist calling in sick.

_At least it's Saturday tomorrow, _he thought. He thankfully had weekends off, giving him a chance to hang out with his friends and relax. One of the few perks of being a working man.

He sat down at the front desk, letting out another deep sigh. What was the point of even working this late? Barely anyone showed up past eight o'clock PM, and it was a quarter past nine. In his parents' defense, it was a little too late to go out and do anything, but still-the idea sitting on the porch drinking a soda and listening to music sounded a lot more appealing than sitting at a desk in a hotel, playing Solitaire on his iPhone.

_Nobody's gonna show up, _he thought once more in frustration. _I'm gonna sit here all night long, doing nothing, and not a single person's going to show up. _

* * *

The two girls, Max and Angel, hadn't been in the air for more than twenty minutes before they needed to stop and rest. Once the initial exhilaration of finally being free had worn off, they became aware of what kind of shape they were in. Angel, though she had had some chance to recover, was still feeling pretty wiped out, and Max was in even worse shape.

Flapping her wings to slow herself down, Max landed in a patch of trees behind a building. Angel followed her, panting as she landed. She had never flown that much or that fast before.

"You okay, Angel?" Max asked her.

Angel nodded, catching her breath.

"Max?" she asked, looking up.

"Yeah?"

"What do we do now?"

Max paused. They hadn't had much time to think this through, decide exactly how they were going to survive outside of the lab. It had all happened so fast-one minute, Max was strapped to a table getting jabbed with needles, and the next, she was out in the open air, living free at last.

She looked down at her hospital gown, which was light blue and barely reached her knees. She didn't even have shoes on.

"Find new clothes. And food. And a place to stay."

"How? Where?"

Max thought back to all of the lessons Jeb had given her when she was growing up, and all of the information about the outside world she had picked up by eavesdropping on the Whitecoats. Most of them didn't know how intelligent Max actually was, and sometimes they would say things that Max wasn't supposed to hear-especially the newer Whitecoats, who, with the exception of Dr. Richardson, viewed Max as nothing more than a dumb lab rat.

"I don't know. Let's just...walk around and see what we see."

"Okay."

Max glanced at Angel, noticing how worried she looked.

"Are you okay?"

"Is anyone gonna hurt us?" she asked.

"No, sweetie," Max assured her, even though she really had no idea what life in the normal world was like. She wanted Angel to feel safe. "We're free now. Nobody can hurt us."

She nodded, before pausing and pointing to Max's back. "But what about our wings? Do a lot of people here have wings?"

Max felt a rush of panic. How could she have forgotten? She knew that nobody on the outside had wings or any other genetic mutations. After all, if having wings was so normal, why would the two girls be kept under lock and key in a secret lab because of it?

"We'll tuck them in," Max said. "And get clothes that cover them."

Both of the girls pulled their wings in tight, so that nobody could see them unless they were looking closely. Slowly, they advanced from beyond the trees.

As they got closer to the street, illuminated by the streetlights, Angel reached for Max's hand. She was happy to be free as well, but she just didn't know what to expect out there. Everything was so...different. Back at the lab, the whole place had smelled of rubbing alcohol. The only way to tell when one day ended and another began was whether the fluorescent lights were on or off. Even then, they spent so much time drugged or unconscious, everything just blurred together. And, obviously, there were no trees or plants to be seen.

Outside, it was definitely night. The only lights they could see were the glowing streetlights and the stars above them. Instead of rubbing alcohol, the outside air smelled somewhat salty. It was warmer outside than it had been inside. And they were standing on patches of grass as opposed to cold, shiny tiles.

"What's that smell?" Angel asked.

Max sniffed the salty air, once again racking her brain for something Jeb had told her. "Remember the water we saw, flying over here? I think it's the ocean. Did Jeb ever tell you the ocean is made of salt water?"

"I think so," Angel said, even though she couldn't remember.

They made their way to the front of the building. It was large, and concrete, kind of like the lab they had just left. Angel clutched Max's hand tighter.

"It's okay." She pointed to the sign above the entryway, which read "WALMART SUPERSTORE." "See? This is a store. This is where we're gonna get stuff we need."

"Are we gonna live here?" she asked.

"No," Max said. That was another problem. They would need a place to stay, preferably indoors. A place not like that...that...Max thought of an easy way she could refer to her former residence.

_Maybe...the School_, she thought. She wasn't sure why her mind went there. Maybe because she had actually learned a few things in between being tested on. But it worked.

"Let's worry about clothes first."

Inside the store, Max was even more aware of how much the two of them stood out. Even in Walmart, it wasn't a common occurrence to see two young girls wearing nothing but hospital gowns walking around the store. Luckily, nobody stopped them to ask any questions.

Max reached for her pocket, making sure they still had the money Dr. Richardson gave them. Then, they headed for what appeared to be the clothing department.

"Wow!" Angel exclaimed, reaching for a row of dresses. "They're so pretty!" She had never been able to wear what she wanted before. The only time she had even seen pretty clothes was on one of the Whitecoats. But they never wore anything except hospital gowns. Until then, that was.

"We can only get a few things for now," Max warned her. She tried to hide her own excitement at seeing the rows and rows of different colored clothes. The color amazed her the most. Everything out here was so bright and unique. She wanted to jump and clap her hands with joy, but she held herself back. _Blend in, Maximum, _she told herself.

For herself, she picked out a few pairs of shorts and pants, several multicolored T-shirts, a hooded sweatshirt, and a pair of flip-flops. _Good enough for now, _she figured. She turned to Angel, who, by the looks of things, had picked out every girls' size small dress on the rack.

"Angel, we can't get dresses right now," Max told her gently. She reached behind her for some more practical clothes. "Here you go. Get stuff like what I bought."

"Can I get one? Please?" She held up a pink, flowered dress.

Max sighed, looking at the price tag. Ten dollars.

_Ten dollars we could spend on food. _She looked at Angel, then back at the pink dress. She looked so hopeful. She had never looked that hopeful before.

"Fine," she said, relenting. "Just that one."

"Yay!" Angel exclaimed. In addition to the dress, she had picked out her own pair of flip-flops, along with a few outfits similar to what Max had picked out.

"Okay. Let's get some food now."

In addition to the wide selection of clothes, Max was amazed at how much food there was in the store. Interesting, delicious-looking food, too. Fruits, vegetables, nothing like the slop they were fed at the School.

A part of Max wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She fully expected to wake up any second and be back at the School. But nothing happened. She was still there, standing in the supermarket section of Walmart.

"What do you want?" Max asked Angel.

"Everything," she said, looking around.

"We can't get everything," Max said. "Let's just get food for tonight. We'll figure out the rest tomorrow morning." She was getting tired, and they needed to find a place to stay before. it got too late.

"How about this?" Max picked up a container of pasta salad. She had seen one of the Whitecoats eating it for lunch one day, and figured it would taste good. She got two containers, just in case, along with some apples and a big bottle of water. They would just have to get more food the next day.

Angel looked around, clearly wanting to buy more food, but Max pulled her away. "We have to pay, Angel," she explained.

The cashier gave both of them a weird look. He was a scrawny kid, who looked to be about Max's age.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked, sneering. Max immediately felt hostile, and glared back at him.

"None of your business...um..." She tried to think of an insult, but couldn't come up with anything. She had never gone to a normal school, never had any sort of experience with other kids her age. "None of your business," she snapped again. The cashier rolled his eyes and began bagging their purchases.

Angel looked up at him, backing behind Max slowly.

"What's that beepy thing he's holding?" she asked, her voice shaking.

Max looked closer. She wasn't entirely sure herself, but when he pressed it to one of their items, the price showed up on a screen in back of him.

"I think it tells him what the price is," she explained.

"Does it hurt?"

"No," Max insisted. "You're fine. We're fine."

"Alright. Two hundred and ten dollars," the cashier announced.

Max pulled out a wad of bills, counting the correct amount out and handing it to him. He shot her another weird look.

"You're paying in cash?"

Max nodded. He rolled his eyes once more, before handing Max their bags of stuff. She grabbed them wordlessly, walking away.

"We should change," she said, looking around for a bathroom. "We shouldn't be walking around like this." Finally, she spotted the sign for the ladies' room. That was the easiest thing to identify. Even the School had bathrooms.

Max took off her hospital gown, shoving it into the trash can. She pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and Angel did the same. Looking up into the mirror, Max thought she looked...almost normal. Her wings weren't sticking out the back, and she was dressed like the other people she had seen outside. She was too pale, too thin, and her hair was too stringy, but she looked like everyone else.

Max couldn't help but smile. They actually stood a chance at fitting in.

Angel had done the same as Max, putting on her new clothes.

"This is great!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Everything's so comfortable."

Max grinned, hugging Angel. "Come on," she said, grabbing her hand once again. "Let's get out of here."

Together, the two of them walked back into the night, still worried, but feeling a little less out of place.

* * *

As he predicted, nobody showed up to check into the hotel. It had been an hour and a half since his shift started, and still, nobody came.

He stood up and stretched. He was ready to just call it quits for the night. What was the point in staying? It was late, and he was tired.

Before he could get from behind the front desk, he heard the doors to the hotel open. Fang looked up. Walking through the hotel lobby were two girls. One of them looked to be about his age, and the other was much younger, about five or six. They both looked worn-out, and the older girl carried shopping bags.

"Excuse me," he called out. "Can I help you?"

The older girl looked startled, as if someone had just woken her up.

"Can we stay here?" she asked.

"What do you mean? This is a _hotel,_" Fang said, somewhat rudely. He wasn't trying to be harsh, it had just been a long day of dealing with idiots, and he didn't want to deal with any more.

"So...you have rooms here?" the girl asked again.

Fang nodded. "How many?" he asked.

"Me and...uh, my little sister."

"Just you guys?" Fang asked.

She glared at him. "Yeah," she snapped.

"Okay, okay," Fang said, backing off. "How long are you staying for?"

"Just tonight," the older girl said. "I think."

"We have a studio available on the second floor."

"What?"

"A studio room," Fang said again.

"What's that?"

"It's got two beds and a little kitchen."

The older girl still looked a bit confused. But she nodded anyway. "We'll take it," she said.

"That'll be a hundred and fifty dollars."

Fang watched as the girl dug into her pockets, pulling out several crumpled bills. He raised an eyebrow at the cash, but took it anyway. Then, he reached into a drawer in his desk for a key. "Room 215," he said. "Have a nice night."

"Thanks," the girl said, nodding at him before heading towards the stairs with her sister. Fang glanced at her again, and couldn't help but think that there was something special about her.

* * *

Max felt somewhat nervous, even as they were about to enter their room. Unlocking the door reminded her of when the Whitecoats would unlock her room to take her for testing. She didn't want to go through that again. But she took a deep breath to steady herself as she turned the key, the door popping open.

"Wow," she gasped, looking around. The room wasn't like anything Max could've imagined. It was the furthest thing from living in a cage, or even her room at the School, that she could think of. The floor was covered in an elegant green carpet, the beds looked thick and comfortable, and there was even a television hanging on one wall. The closest thing to a TV Max had ever seen was the monitors the Whitecoats used to keep track of her vital signs during experiments.

Looking out the window, she could see that they had a view of the ocean. "Angel," she called. "Come see!"

The little girl, just as entranced with the room, ran over, looking out. "It's so pretty!" she said, pressing her nose to the glass. "Can we go there?"

"Maybe tomorrow." Max smiled, ruffling Angel's blonde hair.

Angel wrapped her arms around Max's waist. "Is this real?" she asked, having a hard time believing that they were finally free and living in such a wonderful place.

"It sure is," Max said. "We made it, kiddo."

"I love you, Max," Angel said.

"I love you too, Angel."

A knock at the door startled them.

"Who's that?!" Angel demanded.

"I don't know."

"Don't answer it! What if it's a bad person?"

"Hold on," Max said. Trying to stay calm, she walked over to the door. She looked through the peephole, surprised to see the guy from the check-in desk. Carefully, she opened the door a crack.

"Can I help you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Uh, yeah." He stood there, holding a clipboard. Max fought off a shudder. The Whitecoats always carried clipboards. "I forgot to get your name?"

"What's it to you?" Max snapped.

"It's for security purposes," he said. "We need a list of people staying here, in case something happens."

Max crossed her arms.

"I mean, as long as you're not in the mob or anything..." He let out a nervous laugh. "Okay, that wasn't funny. But, really..."

"Alright." Max rolled her eyes. It wasn't in her nature to trust people, but this kid looked decent enough. Anyway, if he tried anything dumb, she could kick his ass in ten seconds. "Max Ride. M-A-X-"

"Got it," he said. He tried to peer past Max, but she stood in the way. "Do you guys need anything?"

"Nope."

"Okay. Well, my name's Nicholas, but you can call me Fang. I'll be downstairs if you need anything."

He wasn't sure why he wanted to talk to the girl so much. Something about her was drawing him in. Maybe it was the way she was tough, but not bitchy, like Lissa. Or maybe she was just different-someone new, outside of his crowd of friends.

"Alright." Max started to shut the door.

"There's a free continental breakfast in the dining room starting at seven," he said. "Have a nice night."

"Goodnight," Max said quickly, before shutting the door in his face.

Then, she got a strange feeling-something she had never felt before. She opened the door once again, dashing down the hallway to catch up with the boy Fang.

"Hey!" she said. "You said there's free food?"

"Uh, yeah," Fang said, surprised she had come back to talk to him. "It's from seven to ten in the morning."

"I'll be there."

"Alright," Fang said. He smiled. "Sounds great. See you then."

Max went back to the room, shutting the door.

"Your face is red," Angel noticed.

Max felt warm all over. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew she felt good. Excited, somehow. Like she was a newborn seeing the world for the first time, through all new eyes.

"I'm so glad to be here," she said, flopping down on the bed. "I just can't believe it."

Angel yawned. "I'm tired."

Max forced herself to stand up so she could turn off the lights. Even in the dark, she wasn't scared. The lights shining from outside their window filled her with hope.

They could have a future now. They could make lives for themselves, away from the Whitecoats. Maybe even meet other people. People like...that boy, Fang. They just had to keep their wings a secret. And how hard would that be?

Max would've stayed awake to ponder those thoughts longer, but she was too tired. Surrounded for the first time by fluffy pillows and blankets, and actually looking forward to the coming day, she closed her eyes, falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	6. New Beginnings

For what was most likely the first time in her young life, Maximum Ride woke up of her own free will. Nobody had come to drag her out of bed, instead, she opened her eyes to the sun streaming through the window in her hotel room, which was another new sight. She had never even _seen _the sun more than once or twice before the previous day.

Still half-asleep, Max rolled over, smiling at the feeling of the warm and cozy sheets and comforter surrounding her. It felt almost like she was floating. Wait, better. She was surprised at just how _good_ she felt after just getting a good night's sleep. She still felt a little worn-out from being tested on and the whole experience of running away, but she felt a hundred times better. Her headache was gone, and she felt almost energetic.

Part of her wanted to stay in bed forever, not wanting to give up the newfound comfort. But the part of Max that told herself to get up, get moving and just...do something. She finally had the freedom to choose what she wanted to do, and she wasn't about to waste it in bed, as comfortable as it was.

Max flung the comforter off, stretching and walking around the room. Angel was still sound asleep in the bed next to her. Max had seen her asleep before, mostly after a particularly complicated test, but at that moment, she looked different. Peaceful. Rested. Her eyes shut, Max could even see a small smile on her lips.

She smiled, deciding not to wake Angel up just then. Instead, she'd get herself ready first.

Max walked back to where she had put her and Angel's stuff. She grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom, turning on the shower.

The warm water startled her at first. She could count on one hand the amount of times in her life she actually took a warm shower. At the School, the water was always freezing cold, and she had to use a generic soap that smelled like chemicals, not the luxurious body wash they provided at the hotel.

She turned around, letting the water run down her back, through her wings. The water felt kind of weird running down her feathers, but it felt nice somehow. It was calming, and above all, she was glad to wash everything that had happened over the past few days off of her.

Max finished washing the shampoo out of her hair and turned the shower off. She finished getting ready, then opened the door leading back into the main room.

"Max!" Angel exclaimed, jumping up and running over to Max.

"What is it, Angel?" Max asked.

"I got scared. You left."

Max felt guilty, all of a sudden. She should've known Angel would have wondered where Max went.

"It's okay. I'm here now," Max assured her.

Angel nodded, looking up at her. "Where did you go?"

"Nowhere. I was taking a shower," she explained. "The water's warm here."

"Really?" Angel's eyes lit up. "Can I take one, too?"

"Sure," Max told her. "And then we'll get something to eat."

Angel smiled and nodded, before running towards the bathroom, her little feet pounding the floor.

Max remembered what that boy had told her, something about a free breakfast. It sounded good to her.

_It could be a trap, _she warned herself. _But...food. And he seemed so nice..._

She sighed, sitting down on her bed. Max looked around the room once more. Nothing had changed. Everything was just as it was the day before, the only difference was, it was illuminated by the sunlight streaming through their window.

Max's eyes fell on the small flat-screen TV on the wall. She knew what it was, but she had never watched TV before. It was another new thing she would have to adjust to, living in the real world.

Tentatively, she pressed the power button on the TV. It buzzed to life, causing her to jump a little.

"..._goooood morning, New York!" _an announcer said. _"You're watching NBC Daily News, live from New York City." _

Max couldn't stop staring at the screen. There were...people on there. People dressed in suits, smiling, sitting at a desk. Behind them was an image of the New York City skyline.

"Oh my God," she whispered in awe.

_"We're going to kick off the day with our story of the morning. According to police, a woman named Liana Harris had her apartment broken into late last night. But this wasn't any ordinary robbery, mind you. According to Ms. Harris, the intruder stole her towels and bedsheets from her linen closet, before fleeing. The suspect appeared to be intoxicated, but unarmed and was wearing blue University of Connecticut sweatpants and a white T-shirt."_

The other announcer chuckled. _"You know, those linen cartels are really stepping it up," _he joked. _"You don't know how lucrative the black market towel trade is these days. Yikes!"_

_"Moving on," _the first announcer said, more seriously. _"A fire was reported in a building located in the 500 block of Lido Boulevard in Long Beach. A passerby reported the fire to officials, but when the Long Beach Fire Department arrived, the owners of the building appeared to have the situation under control and refused help. The building involved was a laboratory reportedly belonged to the biomedical research organization Itex, and the cause of the fire remains unknown." _

Max's mouth dropped open. _Fire. Laboratory. Long Beach. _

According to the news, the School, and Max and Angel, were in New York. Not that Max knew where that was in relation to any place else. But at least she had some idea of where she was.

As soon as they begun talking about the incident, the news anchors had already moved on to another issue. Not another word was said about the matter, nothing about escaped test subjects or anything like that. Max breathed a sigh of relief. Nobody was onto them. They were safe, at least for the time being.

"Max? I'm ready!" a high-pitched voice announced. Angel stood in front of Max. Her hair was damp and slightly messy, but still looked bright and shiny, and she was wearing her new dress.

Max's smile faded when she saw that the back of the dress was partially unzipped, her white wings sprouting from her back.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked. "Don't you like the dress?"

"It looks beautiful. But you can't let your wings show like that," Max told her.

"But how else will I fly?'

"Sweetie, we can't fly around here."

"Why not?"

Angel looked so naive, so hopeful. She just _didn't understand. _

"Because...it's not safe. Nobody else out here has wings," Max insisted. "If anyone found out...they might take us back there."

"I don't want to go back there," Angel said, shuddering.

"Me either," Max agreed. "It's okay. I'll help you." She zipped up the rest of Angel's dress, tucking her wings in so they were hardly noticeable underneath the dress and Angel's hair. "Okay. _Now _we can go."

Angel followed Max out the door, down the elevator, and back into the lobby where they had checked in yesterday. Max was immediately relieved that they had invested in some clothes. Aside from the fact that they weren't accompanied by any adults, they looked like everyone else milling around the hotel.

Angel moved closer to Max's side. All of the people clearly made her slightly nervous, even though none of them looked dangerous. Due to her young age and traumatic past, Angel just didn't know how to deal with that kind of situation. Of course, it was new to Max too, but she had to at least act confident to help Angel along.

"Where's the food?" Angel wondered out loud.

Max looked around, finally spotting a sign pointing to the dining room. "Over here."

They entered the large room, where many people were already seated. Then, Max saw it. Food. And tons of it.

Everything was laid out in front of them, everything from eggs and bacon to pastries to fruit. It was nothing like the measly portions of mush they had eaten at the School. And it was all free. Max couldn't help but feel her mouth water at the sight of everything.

She grabbed a plate and began filling it with everything in sight. Angel did the same, picking out everything which looked appealing. They then picked a table near the window and sat down.

Max dug in immediately, not caring how odd it looked for a fifteen-year-old girl to be shoveling enough food into her mouth to feed a football player. She had barely eaten anything lately, with the exception of a few bites of watery pasta salad the previous night before falling asleep. But that, while an improvement from School food, didn't even come close to what they were eating then. Max had never eaten that much in one serving before.

She didn't stop eating until her plate was nearly empty. Finally, she ate the last remaining piece of bacon on her plate, before pushing it away and taking a gulp of water.

It felt so _amazing _not to be hungry. For once, she didn't have that nagging empty feeling in her stomach. She was so happy about it, she didn't even notice the boy headed for their table.

* * *

"What're you looking at, man?" Sam asked Fang, nudging him. He was staring off in a daze.

Sam and Iggy had joined Fang for breakfast at the hotel, as they usually did. That was one of the perks to having parents who ran a hotel, providing free food for everyone.

"It's not a _what. _It's a _who,_" Iggy teased, pointing to the girls seated at the table in the direction of Fang's stare. "See the one on the left?"

"No, I was just zoning out," Fang protested, even though he _was _subconsciously looking at the girl at the table. She was the girl who had checked in the previous night, the tough-sounding girl with the dirty blonde hair.

"You're blushing, bro," Iggy continued. "You're looking at her."

He shook his head, but his face gave it away.

"Nothing to be ashamed of," Sam said. He squinted, trying to look closer. "She's hotter than Lissa."

"I guess," Fang mumbled.

"Go talk to her," Iggy insisted. "Come on! You've been brooding for weeks. Get over it. Meet someone new."

"She's eating," he said.

"Awh, don't be a loser. You've got your uniform on and everything. Just ask her how she's liking the Oceanside experience," he insisted. "You're supposed to be all smooth with the ladies, right?"

Fang rolled his eyes. He never exactly thought of himself as Mr. Smooth. Lissa had been his only serious girlfriend.

"Just do it," Sam said.

"Alright," Fang said, finally relenting. "But if it goes south, it wasn't my idea."

He put his hands in his pockets and casually walked over to the table where the two girls were sitting.

Neither of them were talking very much. The older one-Max, did she say her name was?- had finished eating, and was sitting there with a borderline-ridiculous looking grin on her face, and the younger one was still eating what appeared to be an insane amount of food for a little girl.

"Hey there," Fang said. Max looked up, her grin immediately disappearing, replaced with a suspicious look.

"Can I help you?" she demanded.

"Yeah, uh, I just wanted to make sure you guys were alright," he said. "I guess you guys were hungry?"

Max dropped her fork down on the plate, causing it to make a loud "cling" noise.

"We're fine," she snapped. "Really. Fine."

The younger girl nodded in agreement, looking up from her plate of food. Unlike Max, she looked more frightened than annoyed.

Fang was struck with a sudden curiosity. He wanted to know who they were, and why they were there. They didn't seem to be with their parents, and had literally stumbled in late at night. What were two girls their ages doing checking into a hotel by themselves? Runaways, maybe?

"Did you guys sleep well?" Fang asked.

The little girl nodded slowly, looking at Max.

Max just rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry-"

"_What...do...you...want?_" she said, her voice icy.'

"I'm trying to be nice," Fang insisted, shrugging. "You know? People can be nice to each other."

"Right," Max said dismissively. She reached for her water glass, taking another drink.

When she went to put it back on the table, her hand slipped, and the glass fell to the ground, shattering at Fang's feet. Angel jumped at the sound of glass breaking.

Fang looked down. His shoes and the bottoms of his pant legs were completely soaked.

The two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. Their eyes locked for the first time since their initial meeting.

Finally, Max became aware of what she had done. She looked at the broken glass, eyes wide.

"I'm-I'm sorry," she muttered, her face and voice softening. "That was dumb."

"It's alright," Fang assured her. "What's a little broken glass at nine o' clock in the morning? If you weren't awake before, you sure as hell are now."

The two made eye contact again, and for some reason, burst out laughing.

Max had never laughed that hard before-she couldn't remember the last time she had laughed, period. But for some reason, she found the situation strangely hilarious.

Fang wasn't sure what humor he saw either. But it definitely was funny, for whatever reason.

"That was really stupid," Max repeated. "I don't know when I got so clumsy."

"I'll get someone to take care of it," Fang assured her. "It's not a problem. Seriously."

"I can help," Max said. "It's my fault-"

"Nah, I shouldn't have bothered you in the first place." He paused.

"It's fine," Max insisted. "I'm sorry. I've had a...rough few days."

She couldn't believe she was telling this guy, who was practically a complete stranger, that much. Still, something about him struck Max as unique-and even trustworthy. Maybe it was the way his black hair fell over his left eye, or maybe the way he stood, so nonchalant but thoughtful at the same time-

_Get real, Maximum, _she chastised herself. _You don't know him. Remember that. You don't know anyone out here. Be careful. _

Fang nodded, an understanding look in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. "Well, you know, anything I can do to help, just let me know. I'll be downstairs all day. Literally." He chuckled.

Max nodded. "Thanks," she said. "I...I appreciate that."

"Like I said, just being nice," he told her. "You, uh, have a nice day, now." Fang eyed the glass once again. "I'll get the custodian to clean that up. Wouldn't that suck, slicing up your foot first thing in the morning? Jeez."

As quickly as he appeared, he was gone, walking away in the other direction. Max felt conflicted-she wanted to call out to him to stay, and tell him to get lost at the same time. He just seemed...real. Like the type of person who actually might listen to what she had to say.

_Maybe meeting people isn't all bad, _she told herself. _He seems nice...seems like he's not one of the bad guys, at least..._

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a vacuum sucking up the pieces of glass from the floor.

* * *

"Did you get her number?" Iggy asked eagerly, as Fang crossed the room and rejoined his friends.

He shook his head. "Nah. Not yet. She seems kinda different, you know?"

"Different how?" Iggy stole another glance in Max's direction. "She looks fine."

"I don't know," Fang said with a shrug. "I just...I don't know. She said she's had a rough few days."

"Whatever the fuck that means," Sam said, snorting.

"Who knows?" Fang asked. "The point is, I wouldn't bet any money on it working out."

"You never know," Iggy insisted. "Well, if you're not gonna make a move, can I ask her out?"

"Jesus Christ," Fang snapped. "Back off for once, alright, Ig?"

"Okay. Damn," he said. "She's really gotten to you, I guess?"

"Not at all," Fang insisted. "I've only seen her once before.

"Oh! So you _do _know her!" Sam said, smirking knowingly.

"Like, barely. We literally just met for five minutes last night when she checked in here."

"What else did she check into, huh?" Iggy joked, snickering.

"Shut up, you asshole," Fang said, picking up a piece of toast from his plate and hurling it at him.

"Oooh, toast. That'll make me shut up," he said sarcastically. He took a bite of Fang's toast.

Fang rolled his eyes, sighed, and scanned the room once more.

When he saw Max once again, she was looking in his direction as well.

And he could've sworn she was smiling.


	7. The Discovery

The rest of Max and Angel's first full day on their own went by relatively quickly. Max had picked up a few brochures and guidebooks, which allowed her to determine several things.

They were currently living in Long Beach, New York. Long Beach was a town in Nassau County, Long Island, slightly east of New York City. To be specific, it was 28 miles east of Manhattan, an hour's drive, a half-hour train ride, and probably a twenty minute flight for Max, if she was really determined to get there as quickly as possible.

She knew vaguely what New York City was; one of the world's biggest cities. She had overheard the Whitecoats talking about it from time to time, usually things like "I'm going to the city for the weekend," or "Some friends and I are meeting up in downtown Manhattan later tonight." Max had never been there, of course, but she knew a little bit about the place. In fact, hearing about New York was the first time she realized there even was a world beyond the School, except for what Jeb had taught her over the years.

On a whim, Max had paid to stay in the room for a second night. That would give the two of them more time to learn more about their surroundings and figure out a long-term plan for survival. Dr. Richardson had told them to get far away from the School, and it didn't seem like they had flown very far. They were still in the same _town _as the facility, no less. They had to leave again sooner rather than later, and hopefully find a decent place to stay. And a way of making money. Max felt panicked once more. Who would hire her? She had no paperwork, no experience, no official _name. _How would her and Angel eat?

_Maybe we'll stand a better chance in New York City, _Max thought. From what she knew, there were so many people there, the two of them had to blend in.

The two of them were back in their room once again, getting ready for bed. Or at least Max was.

She sat down on her bed, stretching her wings out. She had cut two slits in the back of one of her shirts, just so that when she was alone, she could unfold them and stretch them out. Max wasn't too eager to show her wings off around there, but it got pretty uncomfortable to keep them folded tightly all day.

"Maaax," Angel said. "Can we go flying now?"

Angel wasn't nearly as tired as Max. In fact, she was practically bouncing off the walls. She just wasn't used to having so much energy. At the School, all of the constant testing wore her out, and she wasn't fed enough as it was. Anyway, even if she had been more energetic there, what would she do? She got in enough trouble with the Whitecoats for fighting back and interfering with their experiments. It was much better to keep quiet and just do what they told them to do. Not that it made any of the tests hurt less, but at least it didn't make the situation any worse.

Max sighed. "Angel...you know it's not safe."

"But nobody's out now," Angel insisted. She pointed out the window. It was dark outside, and most of the people had gone in for the night. "Pleeease?" She, having cut holes in the back of her shirt as well, flapped her wings a couple times.

Max shook her head. "I told you. It's just not a good idea."

She hated having to let Angel down like that. One of the things Angel had been looking forward to the most after getting out of the School was being able to fly whenever she wanted, and Max felt bad about having to tell her that wasn't possible. But, she figured, it would be better to have her be a little disappointed than to have them both get taken back to the School.

There was no way Max would let either of them get taken back there. She would _never _go back.

"Why don't we go to bed?" she suggested. "We'll get a chance to fly again someday."

"Okay." Angel's face fell. "Tomorrow?"

"I don't know," Max said. "It's been a long day. We'll see."

She turned off the lights, and crawled into her bed.

Angel sat awake in her own bed for at least an hour. The room felt peaceful. All Angel could hear was the waves outside of her window, and Max's faint breathing. She tried to let herself relax and fall asleep, but she couldn't. She was still wide awake.

Carefully, she stepped out of her bed, tiptoeing across the floor to the window. She looked back at Max, making sure she was still sound asleep.

Her tiny hands slid the window open, and she pulled herself up onto the ledge.

Looking down, she could see the ocean and the street. The summer air blew in her face, and she unfolded her wings, pulling herself up a little more. She didn't want to disobey Max, she really didn't. She just wanted to get out and fly. There was nothing wrong with _that, _right? She would stay away from the lab...

Flapping her wings quickly, she jumped, launching herself into the air.

She grinned as the wind whipped around her. It felt so good, so natural, being out there, flying around. She flew in all sorts of directions, up, down, side to side. She almost didn't care if anyone saw her, she was so happy.

Suddenly, she felt her weight shift. Her wings had caught on something. She felt a wave of panic as she realized she had crashed and was falling down...down towards the ground.

Involuntarily, she screamed as she felt her body collide with the ground. Everything ached, and she felt blood trickle down her leg as she lay there helplessly.

_No, _she thought, trying and failing to push herself up. _They're gonna find me and take me back...I ruined everything...I'm sorry, Max, I just wanted to fly..._

* * *

Fang had been sitting at the desk, bored as he always was on the late night shift. But for some reason, that night he couldn't stop thinking about that girl Max. He knew it probably wouldn't go anywhere. She wasn't even from the area-at least, Fang didn't think she was. They couldn't have come very far with what little supplies they had. Still, there was something about her...

A sickening scream shook Fang out of his thoughts. He jumped up, running out the front door towards the source of the scream.

"Oh my God," Fang muttered under his breath. There was a little girl laying on the pavement.

And not just any little girl, Max's sister.

Fang reached for his iPhone, in case he needed to call an ambulance. Slowly, he approached her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Can you hear me? Uh...how many fingers am I holding up?" Fang had taken a basic first-aid course, but was no EMT.

"Mmmph," the girl moaned. She turned to look at Fang, her face bruised and scraped.

"What happened? Did you fall?" Fang continued. He moved closer to her. She immediately tensed up.

"Don't-don't-"

"I just want to make sure you're okay."

"Don't hurt me!" the girl wailed, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Fang promised. He had a suspicious feeling about this whole situation...something didn't add up. It just wasn't normal to find a little girl who had fallen onto the ground.

"But-please-"

"It's fine," he said. "I just need to look at those cuts."

He noticed a splotch of red on the pavement. Her back was cut.

"Hold on...I just want to see your back..."

"N-n-no!" the girl shouted. She tried even harder to squirm away, but in her injured state, she couldn't.

"Come on," Fang insisted. He moved her as gently as possible, turning her around, all while holding onto her to make sure she didn't hurt herself flailing around.

He saw a feather. Then a clump of feathers.

_What the hell? _he thought. His first thought was that the girl had hit a bird on her way down. But how likely was that? Anyway, he didn't see any birds in the area.

She continued to struggle as he turned her over slightly more.

Then, he saw _them. _

"Holy fucking shit!" he swore, almost letting go of her by accident. The girl looked up at him with scared eyes.

The girl had _wings. _Two white wings, like a dove's.

And they were real. They were sprouting from her back, like it was an arm or any other normal appendage.

He took a shaky breath, stepping back for a second.

_Okay. Calm down. _

If Iggy had been there, he would've probably wondered aloud if they were high or drunk. And Fang was doubting his sanity as well. Birds had wings, not little girls.

And...if this girl had wings, what about Max? It hit him that this girl was definitely not normal.

_Calm down. It's just a pair of wings..._

"Are those...yours?" Fang asked quietly.

She nodded. "I can fly," she explained.

_Oh my God. _

"Can you take me back to Max?" she asked, her eyes beginning to close. She was exhausted, from the stress of falling and being found out so suddenly.

"Yeah...okay," Fang said. He ran his hand through his hair, not sure what else to do. "Let's go find Max."

He picked up the girl. She was surprisingly light. Careful not to injure her further, he carried her into the elevator and back up to where Max was staying.

"Room 215, right?" Fang asked the girl. She nodded, burying her head into his shoulder.

Fang took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

* * *

The knocking at the door woke Max up immediately. She was used to being woken up by sudden loud noises, and so she jumped out of bed, flipping the lights on.

She scanned the room, her stomach dropping when she saw that Angel's bed was empty.

"Angel?" she asked. "Angel!"

She leaped up, looking around. "Angel, please-"

Her eyes filled with tears. Angel had gone missing. The Whitecoats probably had her-that was it! She was gone again...and alone, this time..._no! _

"Max!" Max heard someone shout. It sounded like the boy from earlier.

Max walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. Sure enough, Fang was there, carrying Angel. Her baby. She looked so small and helpless, curled in her arms like that.

The feeling of dread returned to her. What had happened? And how much, exactly, did Fang know about them?

She opened the door, taking a deep breath.

"Hey, Max," Fang said. He gently placed the now-sleeping Angel on the floor of the room.

"Fang. Hey." Max crossed her arms, making sure to pull her wings in tighter so he couldn't see them poking out from her shirt.

Fang bit his lip, brushing his hair out of his face.

"Your...your sister's hurt," he explained. "I found her on the ground."

"What happened?" Max swallowed nervously, her mood shifting from defensive to worried.

"I, uh, don't know. But she's pretty hurt..." He looked down. He knew he couldn't put off discussing the obvious forever, so after a long pause, he finally said it. "I think she fell while she was, uh...flying."

Max's face drained of all its color.

_Oh crap. Oh crap. He knows. Heknowsheknowsheknows. Now he's gonna tell everyone, and I'll end up back there...because I'm a freak. I'm not normal; why did I even bother? _

She slammed the door shut behind Fang. She grabbed his shoulders, her sudden action startling him.

"Hey-"

"You _cannot _tell anyone," she hissed. "I mean it. You can't say a single word to anybody."

"I, uh, wasn't planning on it," Fang insisted. "It's just...how? Why? What happened to her?"

Max sighed. She pulled her arms off of Fang's shoulders, crossing them in front of her body.

"It wasn't just to her," Max said.

She really didn't want to show her wings to Fang. She didn't even like showing her wings to anybody except Angel. They were the things holding her back from living like everyone else. But...did it really matter at this point? He already knew. What difference would it make?

"What are you saying?" Fang asked, even though he already had an idea.

Max took a deep breath, and unfolded her wings, spreading them out in back of her.

"Happy now?" she asked.

Fang sat in silence for a second, just staring at her. He didn't mean to be rude, but it was all so unbelievable.

The wings were brown and speckled. They reminded him of the hawks at the Central Park Zoo. He always admired those birds-how big and strong they were.

The more he looked at her, the more her other features resembled a hawk. Other than the wings, she looked like anybody else, but her eyes were dark and piercing, and she looked intently straight ahead, her eyes darting sharply across the room.

"So that's it," Max snapped. "You're just gonna sit there staring at me, and tomorrow you're going to tell everyone you know about it, and I'll end up back-" She stopped herself. She had said too much. _Nice going, Max. Really good work. _

"I'm sorry," Fang said. "I really am. Honestly, your wings are, uh..."

"Weird? Ridiculous? Or, even worse, _fascinating? _Go ahead, I've heard it all," she said.

"I meant to say they were beautiful."

Max's mouth fell open.

Nobody had ever called her beautiful.

Unique, yes. Interesting, valuable, special? Yes. But beautiful? No, not once.

"Thank you," Max said softly. "I appreciate it."

She looked from Fang, who looked as nervous as she felt, to Angel, lying on the ground.

"We should fix her up," Max insisted.

"Okay," Fang said. "I brought my first aid kit. I, um, I can help with the cuts, but I'm not sure what to do about her wing. I found a bird on the sidewalk once-"

"We're not _birds,_" Max snapped, folding in her wings as if to prove her point.

"Right. Of course not. I mean, we're having a conversation, and birds can't talk, they tweet...and I'm not talking about Twitter, either..." _Shut the hell up, Fang, _he thought. _You're making it worse. As if things aren't awkward enough. You're sitting in a hotel room with two girls with wings. _

Max grabbed the first aid kit from him, helping to clean and bandage Angel's cuts and scrapes.

"Do you need any help?" Fang asked.

"No thanks. I've done this before."

"I can tell," he said. He watched curiously as Max gently wiped all of the blood away from the cuts, and patched them up with Band-Aids. "Wow. You could be a doctor."

"No thank you." She put the medical supplies away, looking up. "I...kind of had some bad experiences with doctors."

"Like what? If you don't mind me asking," he quickly added.

Max looked up at the ceiling, before turning back to face Fang. "This will sound really weird," she warned him.

"No offense, but I don't think things could get any weirder right now," he muttered.

"Angel isn't really my sister. At least, I don't think so. I don't know if I have any family, even parents," Max began. She willed herself to keep talking before she lost her nerve. "I, uh, spent my whole life in a lab. I just escaped a few days ago...they made me this way. The people there, I mean. The doctors and the scientists. I've been this way my whole life. Ninety-eight percent human, two percent bird." She shrugged.

It felt surprisingly good to open up to someone. She had kept quiet her whole life, rarely expressing any emotion. But for some reason, she felt like she could trust this guy. Maybe because he hadn't called her a weirdo or anything like that and immediately turned her back in to the Whitecoats.

Maybe there were good people after all.

"That's terrible," Fang said. "So...how'd you get out?"

"One of the doctors let us out randomly," Max said. "I don't know why...but I'm glad she did. She gave us some money. That's how I can stay here. But I don't know what I'm going to do," she confessed. "I've never even been to school..."

Fang sat down next to her. "It's okay. It's gonna be fine," he told her. "I just can't believe you had to go through all of that."

"It was bad," she insisted. "The tests were terrible. I couldn't even move some days. I don't know how I made it this far."

"Well, I'm, uh, I'm proud of you. For getting out and all. It must suck being on the run like that."

Max nodded. "I'd rather be here than back there, though."

"I can imagine." He sighed. "It's okay. That's not fair that they did that."

"Not at all."

"But...you know that's illegal, right?" Fang reminded her. "We could call the cops and they'd get into so much trouble, you know."

Max shook her head furiously. "I said don't tell _anyone. _I can't take my chances."

"Okay. That's your choice," Fang said. _Leave her alone. Don't bug her. _"Like I said, I'm really sorry."

"I'll be alright," Max said. "I'm here now, aren't I?"

"True." Fang chuckled. "Well...now that we've broken the ice, I have to say that my life's pretty boring in comparison. I hang out with my friends, I'm gonna be a sophomore in high school, and I'm working here this summer. The end."

Max smiled sadly, looking at the floor once more. "Boring sounds good, actually. I want a boring life. That's all I want, a boring, easy, ordinary life."

"I'm sorry," Fang repeated.

"You don't have to keep apologizing. It's not your fault," Max insisted.

She bent down to pick Angel up. Max carried Angel over to the bed she had been sleeping in, and tucked her in.

"You really care about her, don't you?" Fang observed.

Max nodded, walking back over to him. "I'm sort of all she ever had," she explained. "I'm fifteen, at least I'm pretty sure I am, and she's only six. She needs me, you know. Without me...she'd have nobody."

"I'm sure she's glad to have you in her life," Fang said. He stood up. "Hey, I'm sorry about all of this. I know I sort of barged in on...well, everything. But I promise I'll leave you alone from now on-"

"It's fine," Max interrupted. "Actually...would you mind staying for a bit? It's just..." She shrugged. "It's just nice to finally have some company for a while."

Fang smiled, sitting back down next to her. "Sure," he said. "It's not like many people check in past nine o'clock, anyway."

Not once over the course of that night did the name Lissa ever cross his mind. _  
_

* * *

Across the island of Long Beach, a woman who called herself "the Director" sat in an office at the top of the now-fixed-up Itex laboratory.

The Director's given name was Marian Elizabeth Janssen, although nobody except a select few would ever call her by her first name. Even to her employees, it was either "the Director" or "Dr. Janssen."

She had owned the corporation Itex for years, and had built it from the ground up. They had several branches all across the country-Death Valley, California, Evanston, Illinois, Needham, Massachussets, and Long Beach, New York. All of the facilities were slightly different, but they were all dedicated to genetic experimentation.

The Director wasn't concerned with the issue of getting caught by the police. Truthfully, it just didn't strike her as a possibility. She had many connections across state lines, and had enough money to be able to get what she wanted. And she _did _get what she wanted-every single time.

She stared at Dr. Fitzgerald, who stood across from her desk. "Has everything been taken care of?"

He nodded. "We got it all under control, Dr. Janssen."

"It's good to hear that the East Wing is no longer damaged," she said, crossing her legs and twirling a strand of perfectly coiffed dark blonde hair around her pen. "And even better that we kept the fire department out of it. Now that's just asking for trouble."

Dr. Fitzgerald nodded once more. "Definitely. We don't need any trouble around here."

She smiled tightly. "Certainly not." The Director looked down at her file. "Have all the experiments housed in the East Wing been accounted for?"

The doctor looked at the clipboard. "Yes-well, wait."

"Hmm?"

"We've got all but two. Subjects Ten and Eleven."

"Dr. Batchelder's experiments?"

"Yes. Them."

She dropped her pen, leaning forward on the desk. "Well...where are they?" She was smiling politely, but the look in her eyes could've pierced glass.

"They were supposed to be moved into a holding area in the West Wing," Dr. Fitzgerald explained. "Dr. Richardson took them, but it was pretty chaotic...someone else could've grabbed them..."

The Director knew they couldn't have escaped. Their facilities were completely secure. No experiment had ever escaped, from any facility. It was simply impossible.

"They're around here somewhere," the Director insisted. "They have to be. So you need to _find them._"

"I'll get right on it," Dr. Fitzgerald said, turning to walk away.

"Thank you. Oh...one more thing?" she called.

"Yes?"

The Director sighed, looking down at her nails. "Tell Dr. Richardson to come see me as soon as possible?"

"I will," Dr. Fitzgerald said, exiting the door of the Director's office.

She knew they hadn't escaped. Surely it was all a misunderstanding, and the two experiments had been handed off to someone else in the craziness of the moment.

But she had to be sure. She couldn't take any chances.


	8. Just a Dream

**A/N: I have sucked so bad at updating asifhodihfjdighogf**

**But I've been doing college applications. And school stuff. And stuff with my friends. **

**I have no free time, ever. **

**But I am FINALLY updating. H****ere you go kids!**

* * *

Fang wasn't entirely sure what exactly had gone on last night. He vaguely remembered the events: girl with wings falls onto the ground. Fang fixes up girl with wings. Fang takes girl with wings back to her sister-who happens to have wings as well, in addition to being extremely cute. Fang sits and talks to older girl with wings for hours, not leaving until she finally fell asleep from the exhaustion of the day, her hair in her face and her wings splayed out behind her.

It was weirder than anything he could've imagined. So weird, in fact, that as he got ready for the day, he managed to convince himself that it had all been a weird dream, a dream brought on by too much of something. He rarely drank and never did drugs. So what could it have been? It was probably just a crazy TV show he had seen or something.

As always, he was doing his morning shift at the reception desk. That day, the workload wasn't any harder than usual. It was pretty simple, really, get their name and information, validate the payment, and check them in. But he couldn't stop thinking about Max.

_Speak of the devil. _Max and the other little girl-Angel, right?-walked through the lobby, obviously headed for breakfast. Max, spotting the reception desk, turned around and headed towards Fang, her face blushing slightly.

"Hey," Max said quietly.

"Oh, hey there," Fang said, trying to sound as casual as possible. _It was a dream. Only a dream. _"How's it going? Sleep well?"

Max was silent for a minute. Her smile faded, and her eyes pierced into Fang's head. "That's _it?_"

"What do you mean?" Fang asked. "I'm just saying-"

"I tell you everything, and all you say today is 'how's it going?' Awesome, thanks a lot." Max threw up her hands.

_Everything. _Did that mean-

"So it wasn't a dream!" Fang said stupidly.

"No," Max snapped. "Everything I told you was the truth. You know, after you forced it out of me."

"I didn't force anything! Angel was hurt," he protested. "What was I supposed to do? Leave her there? Call 911 and let the EMTs find out?"

Max lowered her voice, making sure nobody could hear her. "No. You can't tell anyone." Her eyes looked both fierce and scared.

"I know. You made that pretty clear."

"Just making sure. I...I can't trust anyone."

"Well, what are you and Angel going to do, then?"

"What do you mean? The same thing we've always done. Survive."

"But...you said you've never been out of that...lab-place before," Fang said, confused and worried. "How..."

"Why do you care so much?" Max demanded. "You're not supposed to care. You're not supposed to ask questions. Whenever people act like they care about us, they just want something from us."

"I don't want anything, Max," Fang insisted. "I told you, I just want you to be okay."

Max frowned. She didn't completely distrust Fang, but she didn't like all of his questions. She didn't want to answer any more questions. All of what she had felt last night-wanting Fang to know about her life, to _understand_ her-was gone, at least for the time being. At that moment, she just wanted him to shut up and let Max take care of herself and Angel. They could do it, right? They had to. Even Jeb had told her once that she was designed to be a success. Whatever that meant.

"Well, I'll be fine," Max said. "In fact, after breakfast, we're leaving." She shut her mouth immediately. She shouldn't have said that-it wasn't like she wanted Fang to know she was leaving. It was better to just take all of their stuff and leave as if they had never been there. Move on to the next place and find a permanent solution, somehow without giving anything away.

"Where are you going to stay? How are you going to leave? Angel's hurt, you know," Fang reminded her. He lowered his voice, again, making sure nobody could hear what he was saying. "It look like she hurt her wing real bad. I don't know much about...wings and bird parts like that...but it seems like she'd have a hard time flying."

"I already told you, I'm not a damn bird," Max snapped.

_Crap, _he thought, immediately regretting the _wings and bird parts _comment. That was dumb. But how else was he supposed to act? He had never met anyone with wings before.

"Sorry," he quickly said. "But...where will you stay?"

Max bit her lip, before trying to regain her composure. "We'll find a place."

"How?" Fang asked. "What about going to school or getting a job?"

Max's eyes narrowed once again. "Again. _Why do you care so_ _much_?"

"Because nobody deserves to be left alone. Especially after what you two went through."

"You weren't there! You can't judge!" Max exclaimed, before lowering her voice again. "All you know is what I told you. That's it. Nobody's ever locked you in a cage. Nobody's ever starved you, or beat you, or held you down and injected all kinds of crap into your veins!"

She took a deep breath. "You told me about your life too, remember? Your perfect life in New York City with your friends and perfect parents."

"My life's not perfect," he protested.

"Yeah, well, it's a hundred times better than mine," Max snapped. "Your biggest problem is having to _work_ for the first time in your life. My biggest problem is staying alive! All the while with what you so kindly described as _wings and bird parts like __that. _You'll never know what that's like!"

Fang's mouth opened. He was honestly speechless. Even Lissa, at her most PMS-ing, angry moments, had never made Fang feel bad like this. She just pissed him off even more. But Max made him realize just how little he knew about the world outside of his sheltered, upper-middle-class life. This was real. He wasn't dreaming. Everything that had happened to Max and Angel was real.

_What if it's not just those two? _he thought. _What if there are others?_

His stomach dropped. This was serious. He wanted to tell someone-his parents, friends, anyone-just to get some advice on what to do. But he couldn't. He had made a promise, and as bizarre as the situation was, he didn't want to betray someone's trust, especially after going through something as terrible as that.

Max rolled her eyes. "You know what, Fang? Forget it. I'm done. This is why I don't rely on people," she snapped. She turned to walk away. "Just forget about me, alright? You can't do anything for me anyway. Nobody can."

He watched as Max turned to walk away, bringing Angel with her. Instead of turning to go to the dining hall, they walked out of the front door of the hotel.

Without thinking, Fang reached into the desk drawer and pulled out the "Back Later" sign. He raced from behind the desk and followed the girls outside.

It had begun to rain. Not very much, but just a slight drizzle. Angel had separated from Max and was dancing around in the grass outside of the hotel building.

"Angel, come on," Max insisted. "We can't stay here."

"Max!" Fang shouted. "Max!"

Max turned around. "What do _you _want?" she demanded.

"I just wanted to talk to you. I'm sorry for what I said," he said, even though he really didn't know where he went wrong. "I-I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't take care of yourself. It just must be hard dealing with everything."

"Like I said, you wouldn't know," Max said. She still sounded hostile, but her voice seemed a little calmer than earlier.

Fang stood in silence. The two of them watched Angel. Even though she had been hurt the previous night, she was still happy to dart through the grass as the raindrops fell on them.

"She seems so sweet," Fang said. "How old did you say she was again?"

"Six," Max said. "She's six, and I'm fifteen...I think. I don't really know for sure, to be honest...but that's what I think our ages are."

Max wasn't even sure of her own age. She had never had a birthday party or anything like that. Not even close.

"So...you've never lived anywhere but that lab?"

Max shook her head. "Nope. Never in my life."

Her face had become noticeably softer, and she seemed more relaxed overall, not as edgy as she was inside the hotel.

"If you don't mind me asking...how was it? Growing up with wings and all?" Fang paused. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to. I mean, I already made myself look pretty dumb inside."

"No, uh, it's fine. Sorry for how I acted. I just...this is really new," Max said. She bit the inside of her cheek to prevent tears from forming in her eyes. She might have loosened up a bit, but not enough to _cry _in front of anyone. Never. "I just feel really lost," she admitted.

"Anyway," Max continued, "to be honest, the wings have sort of always been a part of me. They altered my DNA before I was born, so it wasn't like I had to get used to them. The grew like any other part of my body. So physically, it just felt...right having wings. And it still does. You know, Angel and I have other traits like that too...we breathe with air sacs in addition to lungs, we have a great sense of direction, and our bones are really hollow so we can fly."

Fang remembered how light Angel felt in his arms. The hollow bones...that must've been why.

Looking at Max, he wondered what it could be like to pick her up. To touch her at all. She just seemed...beautiful somehow.

"Anyway, we've always been like this. I can't imagine being any different, probably like how you can't imagine being...like me." Max shrugged. "But as for...the other stuff? I was never treated well. For a long time, I lived in a cage. Even when I got a room, it was still pretty bad. I'm supposed to eat a lot. At least three thousand calories a day," she said, remembering what the scientists had read off of her file one day. "But they never gave me or Angel enough to eat. And they did tests on me constantly...giving me drugs, making me run mazes...that sort of stuff." She shuddered.

"I never had anyone I could rely on. Angel needed me more than I needed her. She is so young, and the tests they did always seemed to hurt her worse than me. There was this one scientist there...his name was Jeb. He was the nicest of the bunch. He tried to tell me it would be okay, you know? He'd tell me how much of a success I was and how...everything they did...would be worth it eventually. I don't know if I believe him or not, but it helped me get through it all."

She thought of him, of the kind look he had in his eyes. Jeb wasn't bad, even for a Whitecoat. Having him around was better than having nobody.

"And then Dr. Richardson let us out randomly," Max continued. "She was new. I think I told you about her..."

Fang nodded. "You did. That was a great thing she did."

"I know," Max said. "I didn't know her too well. But I hope she quits working there. I don't think she's bad like most of them."

He shook his head. "How do people get mixed up in shit like that?" he asked. "Jesus. Where do people come up with the idea to do that to other people? It makes me sick."

The whole situation pissed Fang off. Not Max or Angel. They were the victims; they hadn't chosen that life. If it wasn't for those asshole scientists, they would be two normal girls living a normal life.

"So I'm sorry if I got upset earlier," Max added. "I'm just trying to keep me and Angel safe and away from all of _them..._" Angel was sitting on the grass now, even though it was wet, pulling weeds out of the ground with the determination that only a six year old who had never done anything like that before could have. "Even if we'll never be normal, I just want to have a good life, and not be on the run all the time. I want...I want to be happy." Her voice wavered, and Fang could tell she was upset. Carefully, he put his arm around her shoulder.

"I'll do what it takes to help you."

"You can't, though," Max insisted. "Nobody can stop them! Or else they wouldn't be doing this anymore! To me or Angel or anyone else."

As much as he hated to admit it, Max was right...he wasn't a cop or an FBI agent. He couldn't even remember to properly fold his socks; how could he take down a secret lab? There was, however, one thing he could do. It was risky, and not technically allowed. But he had to do _something. _

"Hey," Fang said. "You and Angel can stay here for free."

Max looked up suddenly, looking at him with the same intense look. "You're serious?"

Fang nodded. "Yeah. That should help you get on your feet, at least," he told her. "I told you I want to help. This is how I can help. Please. Stay."

Part of Max was instantly wary. Part of her wanted to take off with Angel right then and there. But...how could she? Their money was dwindling. Angel was hurt. And they had no plan.

So against her better judgment, she nodded. "Okay. I'll stay. Thank you."

Fang smiled. "You're welcome. I'm just doing the best I can."

He felt a buzz in his pocket. It was Chris, the other person who worked his shift.

_Where'd you go? _the message read. _You ditched me for some girl. Not cool!_

Fang sighed. "I should get back to work..."

"Work. Right."

"But I'm serious. I'll keep your name down and mark you as paid. My parents are the owners. They won't know anything's up. Swear."

Max nodded. "Thanks again. Really. Thanks."

"It's nothing," Fang insisted. "Now let's go back inside. I have to work, and we're all getting wet."

Max laughed. "A little water never hurt anyone," she said. "But okay. I think Angel should rest up anyway...she's still a little banged up."

Together, the three of them walked back into the hotel.


End file.
